One simple mistake led to a very brief investigation. Depending on how one looks at the scenario, the mistake could have been the watching and downloading of child abuse content. But, looking passed the actual illegal activity that led to his conviction, an accident at his workplace was the cause of a police investigation that, in only a few months, led to his arrest and conviction for possession of child pornography.

The man worked as a consultant for a large company, the prosecutor explained to the courtroom during one of the hearings. In February, on an elevator, the man had dropped a USB drive when exiting the building. He had not noticed the USB drive fall from his bag or pocket and proceeded throughout the day as if nothing had changed. Later, someone discovered the drive in the elevator and gave it to a person who, in turn, made sure a technician at the company could examine the drive.

The day after the technician had plugged the drive into his computer, he brought the drive to the police. He said he was shocked by the drive’s contents. According to the court, the owner of the USB drive had saved 338 pictures and videosâall illegalâon the drive. Forensic investigators needed very little time to pull actionable evidence from the drive, the prosecutor revealed.

In addition to child abuse videos, the owner of the USB drive had stored and organized categories and subcategories of his work documents. Since the files included the man’s name, contact information, work address, home address, and other information, it painted a vivid picture of the owner of the USB drive. The police secured a warrant to search the suspect’s home address.

With an executed warrant, they found hundreds more of illegal videos of adults abusing children as young as six-years-old. Police arrested the pedophile and brought him to the police station. He immediately confessed to downloading child pornography from child pornography darknet sites, having âcrazed masturbation sessions,” storing the content in his home computers and the USB drive he had misplaced, and deleting many files later recovered by the police.

He told the investigators that he had turned to the darknet in search of child abuse content roughly two years prior. He said he had watched an underage girl âshow off” and he then had an uncontrollable use to watch the content found on his computers. He swore he had never assaulted a child and that he would never hurt anyone in the future. He said he had wanted to get treatment.

The prosecution asked for a sentence of 18 months in prison. And the judge handed down the sentence the prosecution had requested. However, the judge suspended the sentence for 18 months under court supervision. The man’s partner, during the sentencing hearing, told the judge that the defendant was a âkind and loving” individual.